Class Closeup | When and How to Play a Druid

You're about to listen to the first experimental season of our show, formerly called Nat One Presents the Podcast. For better audio quality and our current ongoing DD campaign, skip ahead to season two featuring the Daft Monks. Say that's new and different, so it's like your savior druid class. Like, so it's like a 14-15-year-old girl, you know, who like goes around and does public speaking to people. If that's what you want out of a druid, like just really loves nature, but it's getting on a jet and flying to different countries and [expletive], burning up all those fossil fuels so she can fly from like that kind of druid.

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Hello and welcome back to Nat OnePresent. Welcome back, Nate. Thanks.

I appreciate it. Uh we are in 2021, but it feels a lot like December 57th, 2020.

It's almost like two weeks doesn't really change anything.

It's yeah, it's almost like a calendar constructed by humans does not actually create any kind of renewal or rebirth in any way. Who would have thought? Who would have thought? No really. How's your how's your 2021 going?

It's going good so far, you know. Like we're focusing on now presents. I'm still on my little break from work, and I couldn't really ask for much more, you know.

That's great. That's great. This is gonna be the year of breaks from work, I think. I think so. I think so. Awesome. Uh I think today we're gonna shout out we have a new patron.

Oh, yes. Uh, thank you, Kyle, for being a member of our Patreon and understanding that it's just a dollar. It's just a dollar.

Uh thank you, Kyle. Also, we are gonna go ahead and make that uh corporation corporate logo. So look forward to a uh basically corporate person clubbing a baby seal as uh coming up soon. It's coming. It's coming. What are we doing today, Nate?

Uh today we're gonna try something um to go back to our DD roots a little bit. Uh, we're gonna have a segment we like to call uh class close-up. And believe it or not, we're gonna be covering the druid. Now, this is for those of you who may be interested in DD and want to know a little bit more about maybe making a character and things like that and understanding how the character breaks down. And we're here to help you with that.

Yeah, we got you. You know, in our extensive uh experience of just playing at the mall sometimes, um we've really come to learn. Uh no, really, Nate uh is actually a huge enthusiast, uh, really reads up on the different classes. He did his research, made sure to include some of the most recent content. Uh, and then I'm just here from experience. So I don't I will offer whatever insights I can provide. But uh yeah, I think when we're not just here to show you like, you know, what the class can do and what the different you know um subclasses are that that can that you can take with druid, but also like why would you want to play a druid? Where you know what kind of druid do you want to have in your party?

What druid do you not want to be? Like which what's the like really like like stereotypical, like boring type of way to play that character, and how can you avoid that? So we can cover all these topics and more, right?

Like you can look up all this stuff on what the druid can do and how those things. So we're just gonna gloss over those a little bit and really get into why do you want to play a druid? What can the druid do for a party? You know, what's his role? So I think to start out, we're gonna jump right into it. And let me check my notes. So, why would you want a druid in your party? Now they have multiple uh tasks that they can do. A druid is actually, I would say it's on the medium hard like difficulty of playing.

You're not just a fighter who runs in there and just hits, or you're not just uh one single type of spellcaster who just hangs in the back and that's all you do is cast spells. It's a weird mix of everything. Like you can be a utility if you wanted to, you can build it to be a tank, or you can be that upfront fighter who shells out a little bit of damage.

You know, it's I think tank when I think druid, right? Not always the case, but for sure, I think they are excellent tanks.

Right, though. The wild shape itself offers the one of the biggest health pools that you can get. It's a free extra life for your druid when you're playing that character, and if you're not using that correctly, I'm sorry. Yeah, we'll get into that. We'll get into that. So now to go further, like so. You already decided you want to be a druid. Okay, great. What you need to focus on are your stats. So wisdom is going to be your primary stat of all stats to choose from.

That is all your spell casting and your perception and everything like that goes from your wisdom, and that just needs to be your highest stat because a lot of the spells that the druid likes to do is uh concentration type spells, and those require the roles, so you need to have that high DC number in order to keep those spells rolling. With me so far, Nate? Oh, I got you. Okay, cool deal. My eyes glaze behind my hair. It's a little boring at first, but we're gonna get down into it. But these are the things that you need to know, and then so, but also fun. You you can always add charisma to a class, but the druid sometimes doesn't need that.

Like when you're role-playing a druid, I like to picture a guy like a mountain man. Like, is he gonna know how to talk to the people?

Yeah, I'd never imagine a druid with charisma, to be honest. Like, it's just like to me, it's just too fun, you know. Like, like, all right, if you like, let's even take it out of nature and like like DD for a sec. Like the kid that like sees ghosts in Sixth Sense, was he like really charismatic? Like, no, he's weird as hell. And like that's what I think of a druid. Like, they can talk to other things, so they're actually bad at talking to the things they normally can talk to, which is like other players, right? So I totally recommend like it. You could add charisma, but I'd say no, right? I really would say no.

I don't like that because like that scene in uh Eddie Murphy's uh uh not Nutty Professor, but the other one, Dr. Doolittle, yeah, when the little kids like, oh let me sniff your butt, like total druid move. I'd say total druid move. Like, now that we're here, go ahead and uh let me just sniff your butt. So I I'd say the charisma is something you could probably use as a dump stat for your druid, and then you can either go with strength or dexterity, and then that's entirely up to you on however you want to build the class. But wisdom is your key factor in being a druid, so that's all you really need to worry about at home.

If you're rolling for your own stats or anything like that, look up how to do that. But wisdom is going to be your highest stat, and that makes the class fun. I tried playing it before without such a high wisdom, and when you take the time and burn up a spell slot casting a spell on a monster, and then he shrugs it off the very next round. Yeah, not fun. No, it's it sucks, it's not a good time.

It's it's mandatory. You really can't not put your some near a good portion of your stats into right.

And that goes with like any spell class uh spell casting class. Like you want it to be fun, you don't want to be up there just wasting your time, especially in the middle of battle, because then everybody looks at you and they're like, oh man, that guy can't even keep a spell going, or he always misses, like it's super embarrassing.

Oh my goodness, yeah. It become you become the joke. And like we at Nat 1, like, right, we like our jokes. We like to be the joke of the party, but like we're in on the joke. We're no we're not the joke, right?

We're we make fun of other people, like people aren't supposed to make fun of us, we're the cool kids. We're cool.

We want you to be the cool kids too. No, but really, like it's like it's funny at first, right? When you like to be like the we've all maybe made a character, like you're the really bad, you're the gladiator, you're the like suck who's not strong or whatever. But like it's funny for a minute, but then it really doesn't because the end of the day, like you still want to be effective in your class. Like, if you can't contribute in your class, it's DD's not that fun of a game to just be bad at your role.

It definitely loses its charm about the third time you miss an attack in a row and now you are not doing anything.

Yeah.

And like the battle could have been over like two rounds ago and you just keep missing. Like you're just in a cave battling goblins, like it shouldn't take very long. Yeah. And then uh to move on to the next part, we're gonna talk about subclasses. Now, when I make a character, I like to go through and decide like the flavor of the character that I want to make. And then with the druid, it has, you know, it goes along those same lines. So for the start, we have the circle of dreams, which is gonna be your healing type druid. And then after that, it's the circle of stars, which is a new one from Tosh's Cauldron of Everything.

And that is going to be a huge bump if you want to be a spell casting druid. Like it is nice, it is almost on the verge of being overpowered, but it's not quite. So I would say the circle of stars is a good starting point if you want to be a spellcasting druid. And then the the flavor behind it. So the Dreams one is like a Fae came into you, and you're like, Oh, I'm a healer druid, you know, peace and love here. Let me rub some patchouli on your wound, and then you're not only gonna smell great, you're gonna feel great too.

Now, if we go to the circle of stars, that's gonna be like uh what was the centaur's name from Harry Potter Ferenc, where he's like the the stars aren't lining up, and so that's gonna be yours. Like he looks at the sky and he's kind of adrift, you know. Like you could even be like kind of out there like a Luna Lovegood type character, kind of ditzy or whatever. But the stars is where it's gonna be at for your spellcasting type. And the next newest one is the Circle of Wildfire, which is also in tall uh Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, and that is gonna be another spellcasting type, except for in Wildfire, you get a little pet.

So if you want to be that druid with pets to follow around you all the time, uh this one would be where it's at. Long overdue, honestly. Right without a pet. Right. And then the only downside to this one is he is a spellcasting type with a pet, but fire damage, possibly the weakest damage type in all of DD because apparently every monster ever has resistance to fire damage. Confirmed.

Uh first of all. And I mean, any monster that matters probably will.

There's there's there's other feats you can take to kind of get around that, but then you're wasting stat upgrades. Stat potential for just to use your fire damage. And it's kind of upsetting because, like, why are we fighting so much stuff with fire resistance? It doesn't, it's whatever, it doesn't make sense.

Was this planet forged in the heart of a dying star? Like, it doesn't make sense. Right. Why? You know, all elements equal. That's just a quality.

Uh let's let's see what else we got. Um, so after that, it's gonna be your circle of moon. So this is gonna be your upfront fighter tank class because they have the shape shift form down. They can all classes can shape shift, but this one can really get down on it.

Yeah, for me, like that's usually when I've been jurred, I do it as a tank and I take the the circle of moon for like the idea that you can like take you can turn into something with its entire health pool, and when you run out of that health pool, you revert back into a human with your health pool, yeah, is insane. Like it's like it's like there's really nothing that parallels that in DD um to this day still. So it's just like if you if you really want to be a true tank, like that is a great way to go.

Right, and even for a circle of moon at low levels, you get to choose better animals than you would from any other class. So you can be a bear, get beat up as a bear, turn back into a human, get beat up as a human for a little bit, and when you're low, pop back into another bear. Like you got multiple chances to wild shape here, even at lower levels. So that's the way you need to go. Uh, and then the move on is the circle of land, which in my opinion is one of the weakest ones. I tried circle of land, and it's just not where it's at. It's a spell casting class.

You're in the back casting spells, but the druid has a lot of utility spells and so many concentration spells, and you can only cast one concentration spell at a time. So you can't really stack on the damage for being a background player. So you're kind of like mid-range, you're just okay. If you want to be a druid who's just okay, then by means pick circle of land, and then they have all these different levels of spells you can choose from uh based on what land you want to be in. Like, I want to be a swamp druid, then like you have a sheet of spells to choose from.

For me, it just circle of land felt like Bard Light. Like it was just like a lot of utilitarian spells that were like really very specific to certain scenarios you were in, and then you'd go entire like dungeons or areas where you would not use any of them because it didn't make sense. Oh um, and so for me, like at least Bard had the versatility of like, yeah, they're all utilitarian, you but you can pick some utility spells that actually like apply in different areas, whereas like these were like utility that works for a swamp. Like you're like, well, that's kind of not great.

So um and then Bard, you get the the charisma to go with it because that's your spell cast. Yeah, so you can still be the face of the party and not just be some creep. Yeah, like why is that guy even hanging around?

Yeah, that's just my thought. I'm sure there's benefits, but for me, if you're gonna go circle land, like why not Bard? Like that's just kind of where, but that's also my answer to everything.

So and then uh I for actually forgot one on here, but um, it's gonna be the circle of shepherd. And I've played this class and I liked it. This is gonna be so you know how a necromancer has multiple pets that can come out and battle and everything like that. So that's gonna be your circle of shepherd. Uh it's like Faye type creatures, and the character I made was Jacques Dubois, and he was like a rich guy. Oh, you mean Jackie Du Boys? It was Jacques Dubois, and then everybody started calling him Jackie Du Boys. So then he had two bears, so then it was Jackie and the Dew Bears.

Yeah, and it was fun, but uh playing uh a class that has multiple pets is hard and it wears on you, especially if you have a large party. Like how many people were in our group? Too many, too many, yeah, yeah.

It becomes, I mean, we've all played the DD, you know, campaign that's like logistically just a bit much because you have a DM who used like many enemies, and then you've had like multiple party members who had pets, and it just becomes almost a slog to get through. And so uh, you know, it can be fun, but just like make sure it's your playstyle, it's your group's playstyle, maybe even too. Like consider that as well. Um, because it can just be a lot. Um, and then a good lord, if you're one of those players with pets, regardless of what class you are, you need to be ready, you need to know your turns before they come.

Like that's a pet people right nade is like when you wait to your turn, like now let me see what I can do. And like sometimes the last player does something that changes the game, right? That can happen, that's understandable. But like when you have pets, like you should still have a plan going in the mind of like what they're gonna do and then what you're gonna do. So please like keep that in mind too. Like, if you like a pet player, it needs to be like a little more organized and like proactive with their turn moves. And if you're not, you really can kill the momentum of of like the the battles and the turns.

Oh, yeah, and it makes it terrible for everybody there. Like, have at least your stats ready. Like, okay, I want my bear to attack. Oh, hold on, I need to look up bear stats. Like, oh [expletive] no, yeah. Like you've had that bear for how long? You know, like, oh, what bonuses do I get? Like, I'm sorry, you should have had all that prepared. Like necromancers can be the worst when they're like, okay, my skeleton's going to attack. Oh, hold on, I think I have bonuses. And then we spend five minutes looking for bonuses.

And like we get it, right? It's like it's a lot because you have to print like extra, like, you literally have to print character sheets now for your pets and animals. But like, if you choose this class, that's what you have to do. You have to print that stuff or write it down in advance, have that ready, have it on separate sheets of papers, don't even be flipping back and forth. Like, make sure you're ready to play. Um, it's it's such a silly thing, but DD is a game of pen and paper. And the more pen and paper you have, the more like on top of your stuff you have to be. So I it's it's interesting.

Like, I wouldn't generally tell someone to pick a class based on like how much work it is, but for that one, that subclass, I absolutely would.

Right. And it was time consuming because now you need to think about what creatures you can summon, and then you need to have all their stats prepped, and then all those creatures can do different things. It's just a lot more prep work going into making your character, and a druid's already hard enough, so now you're adding more layers of complexity on top of that. Exactly. So definitely the circle of shepherd, not something for a new player, I wouldn't say, unless you have a group and a DM who's willing to work you through it and help you after hours. Sure. Like when you're not in the middle of playing. And then so the last one coming up is the circle of spores, which originally, when it was in Unearthed Arcana, I loved it.

I loved the idea.

I actually know nothing about Circle of Spores.

So the Circle of Spores for the flavor context is you're like a uh mushroom poison druid. Makes sense, right? So like I always had in mind of like a necromancer type druid. So you're like you're dealing in the underdark, you know, and like you have like these spores you can throw at people. Yeah, and so this one is going to be he's gonna be your damage druid. Like there's a lot of damage he can do, a lot of AoE stuff that he can do with his spores and everything, and he can alter his body with wild shape instead of using a wild shape, which actually ups his damage a little bit.

But when they actually put it in publication, it dropped a little bit, so he's not putting out the damage that I feel he should be. So it's a it's an okay class.

Like, if you I love the con like what you just pitched to me sounds great, it just sounds so maybe the damage isn't there though, or got nerfed a little bit, right?

And it's still fine. If you want to play that for flavor, then by all means pick that. Like, I love it, I wanted to make one, I'm probably still gonna make one, but I'm probably gonna go back and use the unearthed arcana version instead of the print version that we have now because it just needs that little bit more pop, you know, especially being a semi-spell casting druid, it's already weak enough. Like when I was the land druid, I transferred from Jackie Doo Boys to a land druid instead, and instantly went from tank pet owner to okay, I'm gonna cast spells, and I died instantly. Like it was the most upsetting thing. It was not great, right?

Like I even changed, I did my wild shapes and everything to get more HP, and for some reason he was just dead. Like, so it's definitely the your style of play and the flavor of who you want to make to whatever circle you want to take when you're ready for that move. Right?

It makes sense. Absolutely. Can we take a second talk about the pattern of I mean, this is a uh talk about Druid, but Arnath Arcana and like you know, they the those classes came out and then they kind of got like taken away or like made not like canon, and then they've re-released some over the years, but with altercations. And so do you feel like in general, if I feel like most people miss all of the original unearth arcana classes? Do you feel that way? Is this one of the like one of the instances it sounds like for druid you do miss the the the real circle of sports? Right. Um, do you feel like all of those classes were better or were they really too OP?

It it just depends. Like Wizards does a really good job of putting out a class. So if you like to, and then for those of you who don't know, unearth arcana is test material. So Wizards will put out a test class that you can go out and try, download it if your DM will allow it, and then plug it into your character and then give it a shot. It's something new, it's something different, and then based on the feedback they get, that will either be altered, like Nate said, or they out it completely and then be put into the next published book. And there is a lot of like I look through it all the time, and there is a lot of classes that I wish they would have kept.

Like, number one being the love cleric. I loved the love cleric.

You pitched me on it, and I was super excited. Uh, but then I remember looking up, like you you kind of pitched it, and at first the first search result was the Arnorth Arcana. Yep. And I was like, this sounds great, but then I realized like I and I use DD Beyond, so it doesn't really pull in Arnorth Arcana, really. So when I went to pull it, I'm like, this isn't what I [expletive] wanted, like this isn't what I because it does now. They they did implement one, I think, or something close to it. Um, but it's not the same, and it's not right.

And that had that was actually a weird thing on that because that had nothing to do with the class being overpowered or underpowered. That was people just didn't like that class and the idea of it, which is kind of weird, but it it is what it is, you know. But there are other Unearth Arcanas out there, and if you want to go and check it out, all you have to do is search for it, and then you download the PDF and then you can go through it. There's actually a lot of good stuff for rangers on there. Like, that's all I use now, is just that. And I think uh I haven't bought Tasha's yet, but it'll be then my next purchase.

But I think they actually do have a lot of upgrades for Rangers and that to actually make it a playable class. That's what I've heard.

Like Ranger is back, baby, yeah. Maybe the first time ever.

So for as much as I love the Druid class, I absolutely hate the Ranger class. Like, even if we got a Ranger in the party, I'm like, okay, so this person's just gonna shoot the bow one time and that's it. Yep. Like, okay, let's hurry up. And then, okay, so those are all your circles. So really think about what flavor of your character you want to make when you're going into this. And then when you pick a race, if they have a wisdom bonus, that's nice, but it's not always the case. You can always have something else to bump, whatever you're gonna be flavoring with.

And then so now that you've chosen what circle you you want to be when you get there, when you level up, now it's time to think about what roles do you want to play, both in role playing and when you're fighting for a druid. Now, I would say for the role playing portion, Jackie Dubois himself was kind of like an aloof weirdo who just hung out with his bears. And Then I think that's fine for a druid. Do you think what do you think, Nate, when you hear there's a druid in the party? Like, what are you kind of expecting out of him?

Um, I find it tends to go in two directions, one like broad directions, and one of them I like and one of them I don't. The one I don't like is the paladin of the wildlife, where they're like, nature is good, people are bad. Like, you know, it's fun, but you have to flush that out more to make it interesting because we've all seen it, you know. We all have had the vegan druid who uh there's anything wrong with that, but right, who parties with people, but for some reason hates people. And if you do something in nature, like they're gonna try to kill you. Yeah, and it's yeah, exactly. So that that area I think is like less intriguing these days, uh, but you can go that route.

The other one that I tend to like is just the weird, like the some kind of socially weird, awkward, whatever. Um, you mentioned like a person who's lived up in a mountain for many years and has finally come down, like has had to force to join the party because their like environment is at danger, like stuff like that. I like um I played it was kind of like a spin on Tarzan where like some like this person like crashed on an island, raised by the animals, but they all kind of hate the kid. Like he's like kind of like the reject of the code. Even the animals don't like even the animals don't like the kid. Um, so like you like you make the unpopular druid. Like that's a funny one for me.

So um, but yeah, I think just an element of weird. They either have to be awkward with people, they have to be or like you know, like talking to plants when it's not appropriate, or you know, like when it doesn't make sense to me, like all of those things I think make it a little bit more fun because that's like druids have the ability to add a layer that nobody else can in their campaign. Like most people can like use a spell to like speak with animal or whatever, but like a druid can really like basically commune with nature and use that entire thing to like drive a campaign and be like the ground is like dark, like someone's coming. I don't know, like whatever, like right, [expletive] like that.

So, in my opinion, go the weird route. Um, and there's just a million routes you can go, and like I think that's what makes it the most fun.

All obviously, all depending on whatever circle that you plan on taking. Like, if you're starting at first level and you don't get your circle till later on, like play that up at first level. Like, if you want to be circle of the moon, like constantly like be covered in like animal furs or something, you know, like making animal noises, and like just tell like the party, like, I feel really connected to animals, and then like you wild shape because you still get your wild shape, but then it upgrades, and like you've been wild shaping so much, like it upgrades now, like things like that, you know, or like circle of wildfire, you want to take that.

So you're a druid and you're leveling up, and then like you're always like playing with fire, like create fire like in your hand, and like, man, that guy's kind of like a firebug over there. And then when you level up and be like, okay, now I'm gonna be circled wildfire, and then all of a sudden you have this uh fire spirit following you around, and be like, okay, that makes sense.

Yeah, those are great tips too to like grow into your your class, like not just like you level up and now you get abilities, but like change, like have your character grow in terms of their backstory and their characteristics into that. That works really well as well. Um, yeah, I can see that with Circle of Spores, you know, somebody who's always like mixing [expletive] in the background, like, oh hell, let's see what this does.

Oh, but really creeping out, like these mushrooms I found.

Or just like throwing, like blowing like powder in people's face, like ah, pocket sand.

Exactly, exactly. And I think that goes with like any character you want to make. Like, if you're starting out as a first-level character, you want to build yourself up to whatever subclass that you want to take eventually. Like, if you're a rogue and you want to be an assassin, then you need to like play that up. Like, have that ready for your backstory because nothing drives me nuts more than a character who like didn't really make a backstory. So that tells me you don't really know what you want to do with that character yet. And it kind of kills the mood a little bit.

Yeah. I mean, let alone it really makes you should always be making the DM's job easier, not harder. Um, the more you do that, just the more fun it will be for everybody if you give him ample material um of who you are and what your character wants to grow into. Um, he'll any good DM will incorporate that in a campaign and that'll make it more fun and anchor your your your character to the party even more.

Right. And then uh the next thing to think about is like your fighting style for your droid. Now, based on whichever flavor context you want to go to in the circle that you choose, that says if you are going to be a back player, like a mid in and out player, or an upfront battle tank. And then you need to play that accordingly because nothing drives me nuts than you being a back player, and then all of a sudden, I'm gonna go run up there and whack him with my stick. Like, no, you don't need to be getting close at all. You need to stay in the back and stay alive. You're basically describing your child right now. Yeah, no, it's Corbin's like Corbin, you won't always play a wizard.

Like, don't stay in the back. Stay in the back. Like, we just have found out, like, I don't really cover wizards a lot, so like there's only some classes that I'm interested in. But he found in the basic player's handbook, the abjuration wizard, which is basically like a tanky wizard, and then so that's the class he chose. So he went around me to play the way he wants to play, which is the great thing about DD is that you can do that. Like, he found the way to play the wizard that still runs up, whacks you with the stick, and then gets out of there, and then like go cast a spell. He found a way to do that, and that's fine. I think that's what DD's about, I feel like.

And and that goes to show too, like you can find the druid or whatever class you want to do, like you can find a way to make the character work the way you want to, with a little ingenuity and right a little bit of research, a little research, you know, and then maybe like change some feet or feats around, and that's all stuff that you can decide on.

And then so to move on from there. Now we're gonna talk about our best and our worst experiences with druids either playing as a druid or a druid in a party, something that like, oh man, that was awesome! Like, I can't wait. Like, that's the inspiration for me to build a druid the next game. Like, I want to play that class, or something like, man, that was the worst thing I've ever seen in my life. Druid's a garbage class, nobody should ever play druid based on just seeing one person play it. Okay. What do you what do you got, Nate? What do you so? My first bad experience, let's just jump to that, because you know how I get worked up and I like to rant about things.

So my first bad experience was someone who doesn't take the shape-shifting form correctly. Like, you can be whatever you want to be. That's the idea of a druid. You can shape shift as long as it fits into the creature rating category that you're allowed to fall into. But a druid should not be the first person down in a fight ever. Like that doesn't make sense to me. And like I feel like that's just not enough research part, maybe, or maybe the flavor of how you want to play, you ended up being like that. But when everything else seems to be serious, and then you're kind of doing a dopey move, like it kind of takes me out of the immersion a little bit, you know what I'm saying?

So the the thing was like we're like battling, and like, okay, we're in the middle of a battle, I'm gonna turn into a rat. And then the rat gets thrown across the wall.

Even at low levels, you have a lot of options, and rat is basically not really one you want.

Right. And for some reason, I was so upset by this, it just took me out of it. Like, I was already a little upset with how my character was performing based on the rules we had in this uh DD session we had going on. And this was like the last straw for me. Like, come on now.

Like, to be fair, I think uh this character this person this player was going for like a stealth rap, so they wanted to be a rat who's gonna go in and check it out. Um, but yeah, it just basically this character kept dying as a druid, and it really just didn't really make sense, or being like in danger of dying. Right. And there was no there's really no need for that as a druid. Like you can absolutely get around that in many, many ways, um, by picking a better wild shape form, or by just not picking a weak animal. Um or you can you you can wild shape many times usually, yeah. Even in the beginning, right? It's like two times. So you start with two, yeah.

So like, and again, we talked about how like it's like an extra health pool, you run out, you do it again, another health pool. So when you like really when everybody else, like like I was a sorcerer, you know, not a lot of HP there at low levels either, and I'm still standing. Granted, I'm standing in the back, but you know, you also like also just just you know, play play your glasses. If you are trying, like if you're in the front, you're kind of being tanky, but then if you're not doing tanky things, what are you doing? You know, like like then stay in the back. Either stay in the back and don't do tanky things or get in the front and do tanky things, right?

You can't do a weird combination of both, right? So uh, I mean that one didn't totally I was there for that, and it I don't think it took me out of of the character or the game, but it just it was more like oh, you like you're really just doing yourself a disservice and you're constantly like having to almost die. And then eventually this character did die. Right. Die, die, like not just faint, like dead, dead right now, dead. Um, I don't know. So for me, that's not so bad as I I do like the the druids that have fun with the wild shapes, and like to be honest, right? We've talked about uh in in some of our earlier, I think like our beta sessions.

If you join our Patreon, you can actually watch this. Check it out, just another one. Um we talk about min-maxing and max maxing, is kind of like terms we made up, and min-maxing is cool, but max maxing tends to be annoying. And so the druids who always just pick like the the most health pool, right? You know, uh when it's like not like or like so you're in a tiny dungeon and then you're a gigantic bear, you know, and like you're trying to stealth through it. Probably not. Why you do it? So I I do think there's a time and a place for different forms, and if you always just pick, I mean, there are some forms that are really OP as well.

Like each animal like that you can change into tends to have abilities like that are like if it's a snake, right, you'll bite, and then it has a chance of poisoning and stuff like that. So there's a lot of cool things you can do, and some of them I'd say are like definitely objectively better than other animals. So I tend to not be a fan of I've seen the Druids who always use the OP forms when it doesn't make sense, or like you know, we're like flying through the air and they're a snake, like and not the flying snake, but like a regular snake, and it's just like how's that work?

You know, like so you know, I I'm more of a situations I like is is be situational with your wild shape form, and that'll make it the character more believable for me.

Yeah, I can see that. And then like I appreciate that and everything, but that's great nade, but that's great. But when the damage output wasn't there either, like sh to be fair, she was having some bad roles with Thorn Whip, and it became a joke. Like, stop using Thorn Whip, like it's awful. It wasn't a joke though, it wasn't like stop using it, and just like the combination of like, okay, your character keeps dying and you're not doing any damage, like like go in the back and make some hot cocoa or something, you know? Like, do that. Like, it just it slows everything down and it's tough, and like it just it wore on me more than it should have.

Like, what it what it comes down to is you made the point of druid is not a class to take up. If you there's some classes you can truly like fighter, you can just wing, and you didn't really research how to use a fighter. Druid is not one of them. If you did not do a lot of research on how to use that class, I just don't recommend it. So this I think this player had played DD before many times, and she was fun to play with, and like Charisma was there. Um, I think it just kind of came down to they didn't know Druid that well, and so they were like they were like min minning like their role, you know, and and uh that was unfortunate for them.

And and then for us, it made it, you know, again in early levels, right? I tend to find levels one and two, I just want to slam my head into a wall. They're boring, they're boring. Um, so it's a slog in your party struggles to kill even like simple things. So then it's like add on top of that a layer of maybe still not knowing how to use your class well or even correctly, right? Then it just gets like extra excreciated.

Like I was super frustrated and I I took it out on her like mentally, not really. I didn't like yell at her or anything or even tell her anything, like, but mentally I took it out on her, like I was putting all my internal blame on her when it wasn't her fault. She was playing the class and she was having fun, and everybody else was having fun. And like I apologize if you're watching this, I apologize for that because like it I shouldn't have done that. Like, we were everyone's having fun, but and I but I'm so passionate about the druid, and for you to be playing the druid that a way I don't want you to play it.

The circle of fainting or like the circle of death, the druid.

I'm like, I get really like an upper echelon about it. I'm like, you shouldn't be playing my class like that. Like, I should have played the druid and showing you how to play it correctly. Like, I got all hoity-toity about it, you know. And it shouldn't be like that. DD is supposed to be fun, yeah. You're supposed to have fun, but I took it too far mentally. And for that, I apologize. I'm sorry, but seriously, learn how to play a druid.

Um, all right, so for me, I mean I I kind of hit on it, but um we're kind of getting negative, so we should come off some good examples of druids. But like don't be the Radagast of your party either. Like, so he's weird, right? And when I say Radagast, uh, we're talking about like in uh the Hobbit movies. Yep. He's that he's like the he's like Gendalf's peer.

He's in one another, he's got birdshit on his shoulder, you know, running down his face.

He's a druid, but like they take it very literal to me. Right. And like we mentioned the weirdness, but the weirdness doesn't have to be so literal. I don't know. Like he he just, you know, he he does he's like the like petting animals, and then he's like weird around the people, and then he has like a a sled of deer. I mean, actually, as I'm saying it, he sounds great, but I guess just like the movie interpretation was maybe not right for it, but just don't go totally literal, right? If you love animals, cool, but you're like you still know, like then then still have like ways to interact with people. And if you're gonna be weird, like don't just like I don't know, there's there's layers of weird.

I I like I like the awkward people who don't know they're awkward and like they're not like not the like shy, like awkward, but just kind of like you know, like that the person who comes down from the mountains is like I haven't eaten in three weeks. Like, like it just says things nonchalantly, right? Like, or like I I use moss as a deodorant, like stuff like that. That's kind of more fun to me, like when they're nonchalant about it, but they're still like self-confident and not not the like meek. I don't like meek, I don't like mousey, um, and then like weird and awkward. All of that, I'm like, that's just high school, right? I don't want high school druid, I want you know, like college druid.

Yeah, like he like the flannel and the beard. Yeah, exactly. I want the like you know, um Paul Bunyan Druid. I don't know. I guess so that's my thought. Uh don't don't just go like we we talked a lot about being weird, but don't go super literal with it. Like have like elements of weirdness that are just fun and nonchalant. I think that that's that's kind of I think how to play a druid.

I think so too. And like that brings up like my my favorite part. Like when I first appeared as Jackie Du Boys, I was like trying to blend in as a tree, and then somebody came over and started peeing on me, and I just left it because I'm a druid, and like what? Like, you don't do that? Like, this is my first time interacting with people in a long time since I was a little kid based on my backstory. So I just left that urine all over me, and it's fine. Now people have to deal with that because first of all, you did it to me, so now you have to deal with it.

And like, I'm sorry, I like I thought that was your custom, like you just urinate on me, like I'm gonna deal.

I think, yeah, I think your character is also just like being polite or didn't want to be rude and like interrupt him, you know. Like, I think that kind of stuff's fun. I mean, granted, we're not telling you that it's only funny if you get peed on, but it's more like, right? Like, that's just like a weird situation that like you know, think about like a druid, like somebody whose friends are animals, what would they struggle with as a person? And and I think that if you ask yourself these like really interesting questions, you'll come up with really interesting solutions. Whereas if we just go, Oh, I don't like people, like that's not fun, like right, that's not you. So ask yourself, like, what would this person do in this scenario?

You know, somebody who like literally sleeps with pigs, like, what would he wear to bed? And like, what would you so like when you wake up to encounter the party? Are you wearing like mud? Are you in like a mudsuit? You're like, hey guys, like I was in the mudsuit, like you know, like that's I I like that's my I don't know, that's my druid, right?

And then like, or somebody who like can be easily lied to because animals are so straightforward when you talk to them, like they're just telling you facts, so it's like you were super gullible as a druid and be like, Yeah, okay, man, I'll go walk, check out that cliff if you say so.

Absolutely, or you know, or somebody who tries really hard to impress people because they just don't understand. They're like, you know, damn, like I think I talked to like I could talk to a pig, a bird, a giraffe, and they're all like, yo, you're cool, sound Jackie Doo Boy. But then I talk to people and they're just like, you know, they're like, oh, hey, you know, like what do I have to do to get some attention around here? Right. You know, like that's something I could see. That that person's me right now.

Like or you walk up to someone you want to talk to and like you just start like pawing their face. Like, hey exactly.

Hey, we should talk, you know, like let's be friends. Yeah.

Or like you you just state like weird animal facts all the time, too. Of like, oh you know that uh these animals mate um on a full moon by uh licking each other's nipples? Would you be into that?

Like you know, like I don't know, stuff like that, I think is more fun, you know. Or like a cheetah can run 80 miles per hour. Like, I don't know what a mile per hour is per se, but I know a cheetah can do that. So it's a lot, right?

It's fast. Yeah, exactly. I don't know. Uh those are fun. You know, I don't this is sad, but I don't have a lot of good memories of good druids. I don't I just don't think it happens a lot, partly because I don't think I don't see people just pick druid as often. I think a lot of players do just realize it's a lot of work, and then you know, they don't they don't play it as much. But so I think a lot of people don't play it, and then when they do play it, maybe they don't play it well or as well as they could. And so I've actually just I don't know, I'm trying to like dig for like a really funny or good memory.

And it's tough, but I think that might change a little bit because if you follow the video games, uh Diablo 4 is coming, and one of the main classes you get to choose from is Druid now, and I think that might bump it up a little bit for DD players, especially once they start to see like a druid is a fun class, but you do have to have that prep time going into it. So hopefully some of our viewers will watch this and be like, you know what, I'm gonna give it a shot because I love playing the druid class.

I'm not gonna say I'm the best, but I'm the best druid player out of our entire group, and that's just a fact because I think I'm like the only person who's played a druid when we're all together.

Yeah, you're the only one. I I I played it before. I don't know if you were I don't know if you were in the party um at Don's house.

I think No, I don't I don't think I don't think I was okay.

I was a druid once, and then there was somebody else who was also that was a campaign where we actually had two druids, surprisingly, and then neither of us played them very well, and that really also hit home that like this is not a class for everyone. Um, because like statistically speaking, one of us should have been good, but it didn't happen.

Because anytime I've played with you, it's always been Bard, sorcerer, charisma-based spellcasting class.

Yeah, I mean it's definitely 10 tend to be where I where I go. I played with other people and it it varies more from there, but especially when I know you're in the party day, and I know I want like a Christmas card and that's it. So that we can just have Nate and Nate shenanigans. Um, so what would you like to see from a druid? Like maybe that doesn't exist yet, or I mean we talked about what makes a good druid, and so you could talk that about that as well. But like for me, I want like a rage druid. Like I want like the incredible Hulk of Druids, right?

So like he can't choose what form, like maybe you pick in the beginning like three or four druid forms, and then you have to use dice and it picks for you, but they're like kind of because you don't get to choose verbatim, they're kind of maybe enhanced, you know. Right. That's like form of the bull, form of the horse. Like, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some form of the bear. Like, I think I I would like an incredible Hulk Druid. I think that would be really cool. Who's like he's a little too in touch with nature, right? Um like nature's piss and they're using him to get back. You know, like that's something I would like to see.

Like their spirits or something are coming down into them, and that would be super fun for role-playing, especially like okay, I really need to transform into a dolphin right now. And then you like you roll the table, and it's like, nope, you're a gorilla. Like who hates water, you know? Like, deal with it. I think that would be great. Like that would be [expletive] awesome. I guarantee it. But yeah, I like that idea a lot, especially like the the it would be like a real wild-shaped table. Yeah, you know, just like how the sorcerer has his little table.

Like wild magic.

And then I I kind of always wanted like how the spores is. I really wanted like that necromancer style, like voodoo witch doctor. So dead, like pet cemetery just. Yes, yes, yes. Because it's all a cycle of life, you know, like and they understand that it's a cycle of life, but I wanted them to be like, okay, now here come my zombie bears, you know, like boom, you got two zombie bears. I mean, that would be horrifying.

Right. I mean, I would not like to be traced by a bear. I'd not like to be traced by a zombie, but a zombie bear, [expletive]. Right?

Just think about it. And then like you too can like wild shape into like these different, like almost lich forms. So now you have two pet zombie bears, and then you can transform into a zombie bear. Now they're like three zombie bears are coming at you in the woods. Like, so it's like circle of the plague or something. Yeah, something like that would be cool. And then, like, so say like uh you just have your pets for your main damage or your own wild shape, and then maybe rely on like curses for like damage over time effects. And that's really all like the spells that you can get. So you're giving up a lot of your utility to just be like this weird voodoo witch doctor caster. I take it. Right? I'd take it.

I'd play it. I would love to have something like that. I'd totally play that next one.

So, wizards, if you're out there, um And I would love to. We got some we got some ideas. We got some thoughts.

Think about it. Like, we already come up with ideas and you guys just whip it up, all right? Because I don't want it to be overpowered or underpowered, because I have a tendency to make everything overpowered. Even when we play campaigns, I'm like, you want a magic item? [expletive] take it. You know, like how many you want? You want six? Here, take six. Like, how much more do you want from me? Like, let's just play the game. And then I try to try to make the monsters accordingly, you know, which is always tough. So, like Nate said earlier, it's always hard when the the DM has like a bunch of monsters and then you have a bunch of pets. So I always try to simplify it.

So, like every fight, there's gonna be like three monsters, but they're gonna be a little bit overpowered, so you have to wear them down a little bit because that way I'm not making 27 attack rolls and then have to deal with your guys' 27 attack rolls.

Yeah, I'm just even in the best DMs, I'm really not convinced that you like the them, you're really just dividing your attention, right? If you have two enemies you focus on, you're going to play them better than if you have seven, like because you you're just dividing your attention span by seven.

Right. You're always gonna miss like a lair action or something that could have made the fight better.

Yeah, you're gonna a resistance that you forgot about or something, especially when they're different, you know, enemy types and whatnot. So I yeah, I agree with you there.

Like, keep it simple, you know. But like that's what I would like to see from the Jewed class, though, is that that that necromancer style, something like that. So if somebody out there on our Patreon wants to home brew up one, I'd be in love to test play that thing, especially the the flavor of it. Because it's for some reason I love the voodoo.

Yeah, and that's that's a great point. If you're on a social media or you're part of our Patreon community or any of our communities, go ahead and tell us like what kind of druid would you want to see? What what would you like? Maybe we can we can put one together, put a character sheet, like uh an unofficial uh character together.

Or if you want like a druid class, say that's new and different, so like your savior druid class, like so it's like a 14, 15-year-old girl, you know, who like goes around and does public speaking to people. If that's what you want out of a druid, like just really loves nature, but is getting on a jet and flying to different countries and [expletive], burning up all those fossil fuels so she can fly from like that kind of druid. Do you take a boat?

I thought she took a boat. Did she take a boat? I thought she's gotta be taking jets, man. She's like got a thing in Switzerland, and then she's got a thing in New York, and then she goes back to Brazil. Like, she's gotta be flying. Like, nobody takes a boat. You know what? That brings up a point.

Megan, if you're listening, we're not taking a boat ever. Megan is scared to death of flying in planes. I'm like, we're taking a plane. She's like, we can just take a boat. I'm like, that burns up all my vacation time. This is turning into a rant. I'm sorry. But like, I hate boats. I'm not, I don't want to go on a boat. Um as much as Nate loves trains, I hate boats. Wow, that's a lot. Okay, then so druids.

Um, all right, yeah. Yeah, so druids overall, good class, right? Like I love it. It's my favorite. Maybe a slightly harder class, or just you know, but good class. Yes.

Just a little bit more time preparation-wise, for you to play it. Yeah, give it a shot, but do your research. Yes. Um, and then pick whatever circle you want, you know, with the flavor you want. Druids have a lot of options, so there's a lot of flexibility. But like we said, it takes the work to make it a nice addition to a party. I think that's gonna wrap it up for us. That's about wrapped it up.

So uh if you like this, if you want to hear us break down other classes, give you tips or or just kind of like the play-by-play like we did today, hit us up, send us uh a DM, leave us a comment, and we'll we'll be happy to incorporate it into a future session.

Or if you hated it and want us to never do something like this ever again and stick to making funny voices, we can do that too. But we need your comments. You know, because until then, we are just winging it, ladies and gentlemen. Just winging it. Just winging it. So um sign up to the Patreon. It's just a dollar.

I don't know how many times I have to tell them, Nate. It's a dollar. It's like do you know how many pennies is a dollar? It's a hundred. Who carries pennies anymore? So it's really just a single dollar bill.

Right. You could go out, so like it's a dollar a month. So you could go out and find a hundred pennies on the ground each month, and that pays for the subscription in itself. Just do it. You got nothing else going on.

If you're listening to us already, you got nothing else going on.

What are you spending your dollar on a month that can't go to net one, right? Right.

What else are you gonna get for a dollar? Like you're getting grade A tier entertainment for this dollar. Like what else you can't even buy a Red Bull for a dollar.

If you think we're not gonna spend the next three minutes not telling you to join our Patreon, you're dead wrong. You are how dare you!

How dare you?

This is just gonna keep going on until you give us that dollar. Like it's just a dollar, just a dollar. It's George Washington. Kyle, thank you. Yes, thank you, Kyle. We appreciate it. And being one of the only persons who comments on our stuff, thank you, Kyle.

Uh, but that said, also check out obviously if you're on our podcast, but you haven't yet subscribed or given us a rating, go ahead and do that. Uh, and if you're on especially Apple Podcasts, leave us a review. We we love to read those. We read them last week uh in The Voice of Credit Thunberg. Um she's she's a real big motivation for us. And then, you know, we have social media accounts. Go ahead and follow us there, use that. Whatever you want, engage us. We we dig you. You watch us, we we want to watch you. That sounds weird, but you know, right?

No, I follow you. We have all the socials except for like Parlor. We're not getting on Parla. Not gonna get stop it. Yeah. Nobody's gonna use that. It's gonna be a dead thing.

That's like saying we're gonna bring MySpace back. Like, just stop it. Actually, MySpace even banned.

Did it?

Yeah. Oh my god, they're like, uh, yeah, we're here too.

And he also still use MySpace?

How embarrassing that they even made a statement. Exactly. I literally was like, oh, hey guys, we're still relevant too. We're here. Like, it's fine. But parlor, not on parlor. Sorry, guys. Not gonna happen. Um, and that about wraps up our show. Thank you very much, and we'll talk to you next week.

Bye.